2017

Review: ‘The Gin Game’ at MetroStage

You observe a cozy setting, a two story structure slightly suggestive of institutional. There’s a gliding rocker and curtained windows that filter warm amber light, potted plants, scattered chairs, a...

Preview: Bach’s St. John Passion with Ted Sperling and MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall

From Tevye the Milkman’s Anatevka of 1905 to the St. Nicholas Lutheran Church in Leipzig in 1724, Broadway conductor Ted Sperling is making quite a transition in settings this week. But it’s all...

Review: ‘I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart’ at The Studio Theatre

They are longtime friends who share an apartment, a hearty back-and-forth, and a splendid repartee of tease, criticism, support and jealousy, and multiple emotions that swirl as individuals...

Review: ‘Fucking A’ at Iron Crow Theatre

There is so much than can be talked about when it comes to Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2000 riff on The Scarlet Letter, the half-jokingly entitled Fucking A. There is the unsettling setting, the surprising...

Review: ‘The River’ at Spooky Action Theater

Jez Butterworth’s The River does not yield itself to easy interpretations. Uncertainty flows through the story, jostling us repeatedly. Its questions about truth and morality are specific and seismic...

Magic Time! ‘The River’ at Spooky Action Theater

A man has a remote rustic fishing cabin. There are lot of fish in the water nearby. He’s a rugged, outdoorsy guy and he loves to fish. In a Hemingway novel he would not be a fish out of water. This...

Review: ‘Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Sadie and Bessie Delany were one of a kind. Well, two of a kind. When we meet these two sisters, it’s 1993; Sadie is 103 years old, and Bessie is 101. (They both lived a few more years, with Sadie...

Review: ‘Any Given Monday’ at the Stagecrafters Theater

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise they’ll kill you. That quote, usually attributed to George Bernard Shaw, aptly describes Any Given Monday, a play by Philadelphia’s...

Local Actress Leta Hall Has Passed Away. Here Are Reflections From Her Friends and Colleagues

A memorial service for Leta Hall will take place on Saturday, February 4, 2017, at 11 AM at Grace Episcopal Church – 1607 Grace Church Road, in Silver Spring, MD 20910. The phone number is (301)...

Review: Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ at Everyman Theatre

Charles Dickens career as a writer, journalist, and editor was well-established when he wrote Great Expectations. He did not disappoint. Originally published in All Year Round, a weekly magazine...

Review: ‘The Last Waltz 40 Tour’ at The Theater at MGM National Harbor

Last night all twelve members of the tribute group for The Band gave a master class in blues, rockabilly, New Orleans jazz, country, honky-tonk and American roots music. The elite touring group...

Review: ‘The Big’ at The Sedgwick Theater

Lee Cortopassi’s The Big offers a fun, farcical take on classic film noir, loaded with ludicrous, laugh-out-load moments of sheer, nearly surreal silliness. Set between 1939 and 1942, The Big follows...

Review: ‘Trevor’ at 1st Stage

Trevor, directed by Alex Levy and written by Nick Jones, at 1st Stage, is equal parts emotional and thought-provoking. With strong performances throughout, this subversive show is dark comedy at its...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ at Olney Theatre Center

Revenge is sweet as pie in Olney Theatre Center’s Sweeney Todd. Director Jason Loewith serves up a grisly production of Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 Tony Award-winning musical that captures the essence of...

Review: ‘Baby Screams Miracle’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

What does one say about a play that has a Superstorm as its protagonist? With Clare Barron’s Baby Screams Miracle, now showing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, just such a storm is nature’s supreme...

Review: ‘The Originalist’ at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Playing now in repertoire with The Great Society, a stunning new play that New York has not yet seen, called The Originalist, is keeping the good citizens of Sarasota who clearly love good theatre...

Review: ‘The Miracle Worker’ at Rockville Little Theatre

The Rockville Little Theatre’s production of The Miracle Worker written by William Gibson, produced by Dean Fiala and Emily Mullin and directed by Laura W. Andruski opened Friday, February 3, 2017, at...

Review #2: ‘Caroline, Or Change’ at Round House Theatre

Caroline, or Change, now playing at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre, is a musical clarion call for change at all levels. Whether it is personal change and transformation at the most personal level,...

Film Review: ‘Oklahoma City’ at AFI in Silver Spring

The central insight of Barak Goodman’s new documentary, OKLAHOMA CITY, presented by American Experience and airing on February 7th, is that the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by...

Review #1: ‘Caroline, Or Change’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre continues to shine a spotlight on the works of Tony Kushner (Angels in America) as it explores life’s complexity through its seeming simplicity in Kushner’s autobiographical...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘The Miracle Worker’ at Rockville Little Theatre. Part 3: Brian Lyons-Burke

In Part Three of a series of interviews with the cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s The Miracle Worker, meet Brian Lyons-Burke. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘The Miracle Worker’ at Rockville Little Theatre. Part 4: Jordan Clifford

In part four of a series of interviews with the cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s The Miracle Worker, meet Jordan Clifford. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Center Stage Has A New Name, A New Logo, And A New Website

Center Stage Announces Name Change, New Logo and Website Center Stage is pleased to announce several changes in advance of its grand re-opening—an updated name, new logo and new website. From Artistic...

Maryland Opera Studio to Premiere University of MD’s Opera Composition Contest Winner ‘The Young King’ on Friday, 2/10@7:30 PM at The Clarice

The first-year members of the Maryland Opera Studio present a semi-staged New Work Reading every year, but this year’s reading is unique. On February 10, the Maryland Opera Studio premieres the...

Review: Mariinsky Ballet’s ‘The Little Humpbacked Horse’ at The Kennedy Center

Movement and merriment abound in Mariinsky’s The Little Humpbacked Horse Restraint and sutlety are generally not traits associated with Russian comedy ballet, and that proved true last evening at The...

Review: ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at The Media Theatre

“Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene From ancient grudge break to new mutiny Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean….” Delaware County’s Media Theatre...

Spine: Love and Wit in ‘As You Like It’ at the Folger Theatre

Now playing at the Folger Theatre, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch and produced in association with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, is sure to...

In the Moment: Jewish Plays Project at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia

We in DC theater community are constantly on the prowl for new voices with diverse mindsets and new plays on emerging issues to be open to the upcoming generation of possible theater-goers. Whether...

Interview: Co-Directors Serge Seiden and Vaughn Ryan Midder on ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies,’ Now in World Premiere at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

I first encountered Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies five months ago, when it was presented at The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival. Hearing the play at that first public reading was an...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘The Miracle Worker’ at Rockville Little Theatre. Part 2: Lena Winter

In Part 2 of the series of interviews with the cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s The Miracle Worker, meet Lena Winter. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘The Miracle Worker’ at Rockville Little Theatre. Part 1: Meredith Abramson

In a series of interviews with the cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s The Miracle Worker, meet Meredith Abramson: Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Meet the Cast of Olney Theatre Center’s ‘Sweeney Todd’: Part One: David Benoit (Sweeney Todd)

I was so thrilled when Olney Theatre Center announced that David Benoit and E. Faye Butler were cast as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett in their new production of the iconic pie-filled Tony Award-winning...

Review: ‘Treasure Island’ at Children’s Theatre of Annapolis

Children’s Theatre of Annapolis’ production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure story Treasure Island is a rollicking, exciting spectacle. Adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Jeff Miller,...

Review: ‘Our Town’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Our Town, their first show at their new location on West Street, is a thoughtful, creative take on Thornton Wilder’s classic American play. Directed by...

In the Moment: ‘As You Like It’ at Folger Theatre

Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s appealing direction gives Folger Theatre’s As You Like It a warm flirtatious essence with buffoonery galore masking over Shakespeare’s initial soulful melancholic core. With...

Review: ‘Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

There is a laugh track with this show. As in a prerecorded TV sitcom where the studio audience was cued to be amused, there’s an overhead LAUGH sign that flashes intermittently accompanied by canned...

Review: ‘Mason Bates’ KC Jukebox: Ravishment’ at The Kennedy Center

Virginia’s own Mason Bates is the current composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center and now playing the second season of his collaborative KC Jukebox series. The series presents out-of-the-box...

Review: ‘The Lion in Winter’ at The Arlington Players

This past weekend, The Arlington Players opened a solid production of the dark comedy, The Lion In Winter, by Playwright James Goldman. For those unfamiliar with the play, it is a work of fiction but...

Behind the Scenes of ‘Breathing Under Dirt’ With Director Larry Moss

I was fortunate to recently spend some time with accomplished acting coach and Director Larry Moss to talk about his new role as director of the play Breathing Under Dirt. Moss is well known for is...

Review #1: ‘As You Like It’ at Folger Theatre

An updated classic that rocks! Shakespeare’s comedy, As You Like It, is the icing on the Folger Theatre’s 25th season and its observance of the 400th anniversary of The Bard’s passing. This show,...

A Report on the Reading of ‘Breathing Under Dirt’ at Cherry Lane Theatre

Patience Malarkey was alive and kicking and under the new direction of award winning Director Larry Moss, at the January 24th industry reading of Breathing Under Dirt at Cherry Lane Theatre in New...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Castaways Repertory Theatre

Blue Herons and Other Good Omens Come to Roost in the Castaways Repertory Theatre’s Current Comic Delight If you aren’t familiar with Christopher Durang’s popular comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and...

Review: ‘Boeing Boeing’ at The Highwood Theatre

When is too much of a good thing, too much of a good thing? Is romantic love the most reliable form of love? These questions and more arose in The Highwood Theatre’s production of the classic French...

Review: ‘Love for Sale’ at the Huron Club at SoHo Playhouse

Now in its American premiere after performing in London and Edinburgh, Love for Sale takes us to Paris, 1934, for a “cabaret-play” woven around the music of Kurt Weill and contemporary songwriters...

Review: ‘The Tempest’ at The Baltimore Annex Theater

It’s only the end of January and, with its production of The Tempest, The Baltimore Annex Theater (“Annex”) has already set a very high bar for my 2017 theater viewing. Founding Artistic Director Evan...

Review: ‘Last Train to Nibroc’ at Washington Stage Guild

On a train rumbling eastward from Los Angeles in 1940, a young man in uniform invites himself to sit down next to a pretty young woman absorbed in her book. As it turns out, they are both from...

Review: ‘Marcus/Emma’ at InterAct Theatre Company

Marcus Garvey and Emma Goldman were known for their stirring, provocative speeches. But I doubt that, in any of her speeches, Goldman ever said anything as provocative as “Solidarity is sexy! Yeah!”...

Review: ‘Jerry Blavat’s Gospel, Soul and Doo Wop Reunion’ at The Kimmel Center

Jerry Blavat, “a Philadelphia borne dancer, radio and television disc jockey, performer, entertainer, producer and nightclub owner” (according to the program insert), produced his 38th show at The...

Magic Time!’ ‘LIZZIE: The Musical’ at Pinky Swear Productions

Don’t groan but this is a bloody good show. It rocks, it roils, it’s saucy and sassy, it’s effin in-your-face. The story is gory as you might expect. It’s about the legendary 1892 axe murder of Lizzie...

Review: ‘Hamlette’ at The Keegan Theatre

Being a teenager is never easy, especially if your mother has just married your uncle, who also happens to have murdered your father, and nobody can accept the fact that you’re a girl. Add in a visit...